Neil Patrick Harris Opens Up About Coming Out as Gay in Hollywood

"For me, I fell in love with a dude and started spending all my time with him," the 40-year-old actor said of his partner of nine years, David Burtka, during his recent visit to HuffPost Live. "And therefore, you don't want to be suppressive of that. And so as I started working more frequently, with more eyes on us, I figured that that was inevitability and the opposite would be, again, suppressive."

"I didn't want to disrespect David," the How I Met Your Mother star continued. "I didn't want to make David feel like he didn't exist in my life, and at the same time I didn't want David's identity to be the guy that's dating me. It's a very individual thing."

NPH agrees that now the public is more accepting of stars who decide to come out of the closet. "I think we live in a time now when people seem less concerned about who you're F-ing, and more importantly who you fall in love with," he said. "It's not quite such a freak show."

As for people who out others as gay?

"I don't think doing it in an exploitative way makes sense," he dished. "I just feel like that whole world is very personal. I think it's not a good idea...Here's a good analogy—if you're going to jump into the pool and you're not sure how to swim, it's probably not so effective to just push someone into the pool...It's probably not the best way."